IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2016 - 60

Mobility Report from Nov 2015 (http://www.ericsson.com/
res/docs/2015/mobility-report/ericsson-mobility-reportnov-2015.pdf) reports that smartphones are expected to
account for 6.4 billion mobile subscriptions in 2021, over
2/3 of the forecasted total of 9.1 billion mobile subscriptions. It is worth noting that the forecasted global population in 2021 is just under 7.8 billion. These trends
suggest that society is moving rapidly to a point where
practically everyone worldwide who lives where there is a
signal will own a smartphone. Perhaps more accurately,
we should ask will these devices own us?
Smartphones are compelling devices that combine
the capability to operate as a personal messaging hub,
and to provide mobile access to Web services and
sophisticated music and video entertainment functions. More recently, smartphones can provide a personal broadcasting engine using new Web technologies
[1], should users require such capabilities. And for

many they have become the primary tool to record and
document our personal lives in pictures and video.
According to a study carried out by O2 (a U.K. mobile
operator) in 2012, the smartphone has replaced the
alarm clock, camera, watch - and in some cases, even
the desktop. In fact, according to the same study, making calls is only the 5th most used function of a smartphone, with internet browsing topping the list (see
http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=making-calls-hasbecome-fifth-most-frequent-use-for-a-smartphone-fornewly-networked-generation-of-users.)
With the increasing capabilities of these devices, for
many of us the smartphone has become critical to our
lives. The ability of a smartphone to augment our daily
lives has already effected substantial changes in social
behavior. For many years it was considered quite rude
to leave your cell phone active in meetings; yet today it
is quite acceptable to tap away at this gadget in your
hand. Indeed it now seems to be considered impolite to
interrupt someone while they are engaged in such (arguably) anti-social, tapping.
Like it or not we have entered the age of the
smartphone.

Biometrics - Yesterday and Today

Wikimedia Commons. http://en.Wikipedia.org/Wiki/File:Bertillon_-_signalement_anthropometrique.png

Biometric systems are used to establish or confirm a
person's identity by detecting, analyzing, and then comparing patterns in physical characteristics against
enrolled records of those patterns. Biometrics were initially introduced by French police officer Alphonse Bertillon, who developed an anthropometric identification
system for suspects based on measuring the head and
body, and observing individual marks such as scars
and tattoos (Figure 1). Examples of biometrics used
nowadays include scans of the face, iris, or retina; geometric measures of the hand; vein patterns in the palm;
patterns in the lines and ridges of the finger or palm;
outer ear structure; audible voice patterns; or any characteristic of the physical person that can be quantified
in a repeatable manner to provide a unique metric.
The extracted patterns are matched against previously
registered patterns and, within certain tolerances, a confirmed match can be used to recognize an individual. In
most practical systems this requires a large, centralized
data repository for storing registered patterns, and substantial computing power is often required to process
new patterns and compare these to the stored dataset.

Identification versus Authentication

Figure 1. From Bertillon's Identification anthropométrique
(1893), demonstrating the measurements needed for his
anthropometric identification system.

There are two main applications of any biometric recognition technology. When someone claims to be a specific
person and a biometric is used to support this claim, the
task is verification or authentication of the individual.
It is a "user-driven" technology in the sense that a person

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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september 2016

http://www.ericsson.com/ http://news.o2.co.uk/?press-release=making-calls-has http://en.Wikipedia.org/Wiki/File:Bertillon_-_signalement_anthropometrique.png

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2016